The FastFwd festival was conceptualised to provide a platform to discuss different possible futures. We live in a rapidly changing world. The only way to stay relevant and keep up with the times is to figure out what the unknown future holds. FastFwd festival helps you race ahead to get a closer look at tomorrow. It connects you to global experts who share their wisdom on these pertinent topics.

The purpose of our very first FastFwd festival –co-hosted by NewCampus and WeWork– was to explore how human beings can navigate the future of work, technology and creativity. Some of the questions we answered were on how automation will impact our jobs, skills and wages, how tech trends are shaping the world and how to stay relevant through creativity.

We opened with three keynote speeches starting with Eric Sim (Founder of the Institute of Life, former MD of UBS) talking on “The Future of Work” and helping us understand the importance of lifelong learning to stay relevant. He helped us to explore how automation will impact our jobs, skills and wages in the coming times.

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Then we understood tech trends and how these innovations will transform how we communicate, live and work with Leesa Soulodre (Chief Innovation Officer at Inspirit IoT) in her session on “Technology & Humans: Masters vs Robots in a Smart Nation”.

Tiziana Tan (Founder of Brain Juice Collective and award-winning film producer) then shared how we can elevate our creative skills in the face of automation and the importance of human creativity and empathy in her session on “The Future of Creativity”.

Our breakout sessions were as invigorating as the opening talks and found us sharing stories and ideas on how to help women overcome barriers in the workforce with Cynthia Salim (Founder & CEO at Citizen's Mark, Forbes 30U30), enthralled by the true wonders of AI beyond the hype and how it is powering humans with Chandra Kumar (former CTO at Dell, CEO at Wisely Wise) and discussing ways to harness the power of creativity in our life with Siqi Chung (Director of Legal & Strategy for Zouk).

The final round-robin session saw participants in conversation with world-class entrepreneurs and change makers like Vikram Bharati (Founder of Tribe Theory), David Ding (Regional Fintech, Ecosystems & Innovation at DBS Innovation group), Joyce Tay (Director of Programme & Partnerships, StartupX), Hayk Hakobyan (Partner at Vision Capital, Partner at Prysm Group, Advisor at SOSV), Jamie Lee (Senior Growth Marketing Manager at Carousell), Amanda Chia (Head of Business Development, Asia Pacific & Europe at Audacy (space tech)), Jori Messer (Workplace Solutions Director at Lendlease) and our CEO Will Fan.
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‍Here's a quick recap video of the event:

If you want to join us in unravelling the future in our next FastFwd Festival, head here to get your tickets. If you want to know more about NewCampus or want to collaborate/sponsor our events, write to us at hey@newcampus.co.